We had so much fun hiking around some beautiful mountains and hanging out with Dad and Dan. We were in the Dolomites, a range that's a part of the Alps but has different geology. I hope I got that right. Anyway, it was beautiful.
Getting to Italy was a mess! If you fly EasyJet in Europe, you might want to get to the airport about 5 hours early. Better yet, don't fly EasyJet unless you want to be super stressed on your vacation.
When we did get to Milan, we met up with Dad and Dan and jumped on a train (or two? I should really have blogged while my memory was fresh.) Then, we caught a bus. We were supposed to catch a second bus, but haha it was Sunday and we had planned with the only bus schedule on-line which turned out to be the weekday schedule. We were able to take a taxi for that last leg, so it turned out ok.
The hotel was a traditional style for the area, which is in the north of Italy. In fact, more people speak German than Italian. So much for the Italian/English phrase books I checked out from the library! The food was amazing. It was a mix of Italian,German, and local food. There was lots and lots of pork. Every dinner was 5 courses: salad, appetizer, pasta dish, main course, and dessert. And we aren't talking small portions. We were very pampered. Jules was in heaven!
The first full day we took one of the ski lift up and just hiked around a bit. We had a plan but just ended up wondering around. There were beautiful wildflowers everywhere. We hiked back all the way down and that's where we encountered the most beautiful wildflowers. There were so many different kinds, completely blanketing the hill sides.
After the first day, we mostly did Via Ferratas, which are trails through the mountains that are hiking with some rock climbing. The name means Iron Way and it refers to the way you clip into the mountain. Along the trail, in any even semi-dangerous area there are steel cables, ladders or stemples (think staple) attatched to the mountain so you can clip in. It was a lot of fun and very challenging, for me at least. Jules had to find ways to make it harder, sometimes making me incredibly nervous to put it mildly. I think he's part mountain goat.
My sweet husband went first so he wouldn't have to wait for me, the slow poke. Unfortunately, that means we don't have as many pictures of him.
Dad got this one of Jules climbing up an old trail that no longer has a cable to clip into and is much more dangerous! Jules is the crazy guy on the left.
So, that's not us in the picture, but we did climb up that way!
Overall, it was an amazing trip with way more beautiful pictures than I can post here. We had so much fun hanging out with Dad and Dan on the trail and at the hotel. We're so thankful that we were able to go.
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